Money Money.....

Money changes everything...
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love...
I want money...that's what I want, I want money...

Well, well, well. The gorman's got the check from the State this week for the latest land taking for the new road coming through our neighbors' and it was a whopper! $40 grand. For rich people that ain't nothing, but for me and mine that's a year and three month's work. And considering the year I just had, well, whew! is all I can say. Thank you Baby Jesus!
Butttttt......getting that money meant that my wife/ex-wife decided she was worth at least $10 grand of it. Why? Who knows. We were separated long before I bought this house, and in fact I never would have bought it if she hadn't bolted NYC with my Madeleina to come live with Cabeza de Hamburgesa--HamburgerHead himself, Mr. Vic. And to afford that she used the $20 grand I gave her to buy their house...Nonetheless, somehow she felt entitled to at least $10 grand and it was only by a miracle that our taxes were ready on the same day we got the check. Now the problem with both checks: We both had to sign them both--the taxes and land taking--because 1) we filed taxes together and 2) even though I bought my house in Texas in my name only, the Department of Transportation wouldn't issue a single name check to a married man because it's terrified of future lawsuits.
So what luck that both checks were drawn on the same bank on the same day. Because Chepa was ready for a fight. And I wasn't going to have any of it. She's never contributed a penny to this house or property and though I love her, fair is fair: She's got a boyfriend and he's supposed to be taking care of her business, yet I paid last two car payments, bought several hundred dollars of groceries,a new and bigger car seat for Sierra the queen and clothes this week for beautiful newborn Alexa. And I'm on my way to bring milk for the babies over to Chepa in about one minute. So I'm doing my share.
Check signing time. Chep asks how much she's getting from the $40 grand. I tell her I'll give her $4 grand just for a present. She raises the roof. I look at the tax check. "I'll let you have the whole $3,100 refund and forget the two car payments if you sign the big check. That's $8 thousand for two signatures. Not a bad day for an amatuer writer. Hell, I've only had two days that good in my whole writing career and they didn't involve just signatures."
She did it. I exhaled.
And then I came home and looked at the $40 grand check and made the list of people who need to be paid: $4500 for my last operation, on credit cards; $750 to finish paying off October trip coordinator Virginia's unpaid bills in Peru; $4,000 for Chepa; $3000 to Chuck and Larry for loans they made to save this house for us five years ago...and on and on until it turns out that $40 grand check is really a $12,000 check. Not bad. I will have paid everyone in the universe off, all the friends who have helped me who expect money back, but the reality is it's not a $40 grand check. It's a nice little check that will allow me to get the kids' passports and citizenship done for about $3 grand, to get my car fixed, to buy a new washing machine and a few hundred bucks of paint we need and to sock maybe half of the 12 away for a rainy day, which might come tomorrow.
So I'm fat like a cat that just ate good. But I still ain't rich.
Still, it'll be wonderful to get those nagging debts done with. Can't wait till the check clears.